Neo Shugo Chara: Memories
by NeoExlucky
Summary: Brandon Goins is a 7th grade geek, with very little ambitions and dreams, except for his focus on school work. That is, until he thinks about the possibility of changing his life and he receives two eggs. Now with a grand adventure he'll have to find out who his true self is. Note: An all OC cast! (This is my first time posting a story here, so helpful critique is appreciated!)
1. The wish, the eggs, and the girl

My name is Brandon Goins, and on July 31, 2012, I laid two eggs. Now I know what you're thinking, but I'm a relatively healthy American boy. I'm about 5'11 in height, about 180 pounds in weight, with short brown hair, black wire framed glasses, and blue eyes. Then, on the first day of school, I woke up and had two very decorated eggs laying in my bed. I had laid two eggs.

Of course, the story began a little before then, a day before, to be exact. I was taking a walk that night, which I normally do when I am trying to think about something. Today was because of the letter that I got a couple of weeks beforehand, informing me of my acceptance into the school's honor society, it's sort of like a student council. Most kids would be happy about this, as only a few select students get into the honor society, but I was hoping I wouldn't make it in. You see, I'm somewhat terrible at social interaction. Most of my life consists of waking up, going to school, coming home, going to bed, repeat. I don't really do school activities, and I've never been focused on anything except schoolwork, that was it. If I had to be part of the honor society that means my entire life will have to change. Not to mention the fact that my socialphobia has always been a problem. Coupled with the fact that I don't like people staring at me and I hate talking in front of crowds, I'd be the worst member of the honor society ever.

I'll have to give up my old life and trade it for a new one. That new life thought might now be so bad.

If I was able to overcome my fears, then being a member of the honor society would be a great…well…honor! We get to do so much good work, I could get out there, people would know my name, and I'd be like a mini celebrity.

That's what caused this confusion though. I have to pick between keeping it safe and staying with my old life, where nothing will change and I'll be normal, or I could take the risk and keep with the honor society, where things could either go really well or I could fall flat on my face and be publicly humiliated everywhere I go.

Getting back to the story though, I was on a walk around my neighborhood when I got lost and it was already night. The street lights radiated orange light over the dark grey pavement of the sidewalk below. All around me houses with windows shining like beacons were filled with families, and the black street was calm and empty, not a car for as far as I could see. My neighborhood wasn't that bad, it'd be fine if I could just not get lost.

I wasn't really focused on finding my way back, my question was the forefront of my thoughts. Do I stay the way I am or go another route in my life? Of course this only made it harder to traverse where I was and soon I found myself sitting on a bench as I tried to figure out where I was. I don't know when I did it but at some point I just started staring at the sky. I was drawn to a star to the left of the moon for some reason. It looked bigger and shinier than the other stars. It grabbed my attention and it gave me a feeling of hope for some reason. I remembered when I was a kid how people would always wish on stars for their answers to come true. I didn't really believe that wishing on a star would help, but I still put my hands together and got in a praying position.

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." I said. "Star, please, I just want to know what to do. My entire life could drastically change tomorrow. Star, please, give me a sign. Do I work with the honor society, or should I stay with the life I have now? Please star, I just need an answer…please…" For some reason, after I let my hands go, a huge wave of pain washed over my head, like I had just banged it on something and now I had a headache. I rubbed my temples with my eyes closed for a minute before a familiar voice called me.

"Brandon, where have you been?!" I looked up to see the familiar face of my mother, with long brown hair, washed out blue eyes, driving a white SUV. I was glad that I was about to go home, but something changed within me that day, thanks to my wish.

I don't really remember going home and going to bed, I remember my alarm going off for the first day of school, me crawling out of bed, and turning around when I heard a click and saw two eggs, a green one and a white one, both laying on my bed. I had no idea what to think of it.

"What...?" I said and stared at the eggs. The first thing that came to mind was a joke. "Oh… ha, very funny Ethan." I called to my younger brother who wasn't even in the room, in retrospect it didn't even make any sense, he lived up north with my Dad, he wouldn't have been here last night to put eggs in my bed. "What was the point of putting fake eggs in my bed?" I looked from my door back to my bed. "They're fake, right?" I crouched down and scooped up the eggs only to drop them again, they were warm. "Nope, those are real!" I said in surprise. That's when I started panicking.

"Okay…so there are two eggs in my room, lying in my bed, and they are very warm…" I kneeled down next to the eggs and stared at them, for some reason I felt…connected to them. I'm not sure what to call it, but I felt like I needed to protect them, like they were _my_ eggs. That couldn't be true though, humans didn't lay eggs. Still, they looked so delicate…so I scooped them both up into my hands. They felt so hot, like they had just come out of an oven or something.

"They're warm." I muttered to myself. "That means something will be born soon…right?" I asked to no one in particular. I had no idea how to handle this. It felt weird that I looked at them like they were my eggs, but I guessed that they were. So I did the only real sensible thing after I changed clothes, I put them in my bookbag and took them with me.

My mom drove me to school, which would have been a perfect time to ask her about the eggs, but I spared myself the awkward moment. I mean, how do you say, "Hey, I laid some eggs, is that normal?" to someone without it being awkward? My guess, you don't. So I was on my way to school with a couple of eggs stuck on my mind.

After getting out of the car and walking into the building I noticed a blue watch on the ground. It looked old and was probably important to someone. I would have just left it, but something told me to pick it up and take it with me. Call me a klepto, but I pocketed the watch and walked into the building. Where literally all I could think about were the eggs. What if they hatched? What if they never did? What exactly were they? How did they get in my bed? I went through most of my day perfectly fine, not really paying attention to what was being taught, and just kept to myself, until lunch time.

The cafeteria was butter yellow and filled with all kinds of tables. In the back corner of the lunchroom was where I sat, with a couple of other people that I didn't really pay attention. There was a loud rumble of people talking refracting off of the walls, doubling the sound in the room. I didn't do much, until a girl sat down next to me. She had long, wavy blonde hair, big brown eyes, and she wore a grey short sleeve shirt, and blue jeans. Her skin was flawless, with almost nothing unattractive about her, and the weirdest part was that I had never talked with her before and she sat down next to me.

"Hello." She said. "My name is Angelina. I'm the queen's piece in the honor society. You're…Brandon, right, the new member?" I was a little stunned about the fact that she was talking to me, to even speak, so I nodded my head slightly. "I've been sent to get you. We are having a bit of a meeting today, follow me." She stood up and walked towards the exit. After being a little more stunned, I followed.

The trip took a long time, at least for school standards. We walked down so many beige hallways that they started to blur together. At some point we turned to a courtyard door and Angelina opened it, revealing a lush green garden with park benches, sitting on them were four other people, who I assumed was the honor society.

There was a tall boy with jet black hair and blue eyes, wearing a silver short sleeve button up shirt, and khaki pants. I remember that he was the one who interviewed me at the end of the year. There was a girl next to him with short red hair and a purple shirt and skirt, with black high heels. She looked a lot like a secretary. There was a boy with chocolate skin and green eyes, wearing a Celtics shirt and basketball shorts and a pink haired girl wearing a red bow. She wore a yellow blouse and jean shorts. They must have been the honor society. I also noticed something with them, a brown box sat on the table behind the professional looking boy in khaki's. It looked like it had something carved on it, but I couldn't make out what it said, and it certainly looked regal.

"Hello." The professional looking one said. "My name is Cameron, king piece of the honor society." He motioned for the girl in purple. "This is my friend, Clara, bishop piece."

"Oh, oh!" The girl with pink hair said. "My name is Alicia, and I'm the rook piece!"

"Then there's me." Said the guy in the Celtic's shirt. "I'm James, the Knight piece."

"And you've met Angelina already, great. Now come along and sit with us Brandon, we need to talk to you." Cameron called. I followed Angelina down and sat across from Cameron. "Good, now Brandon we need to have a word with you. You see the honor society is run by students of the school who have some…interesting talents. They are the pride of the school, and are the voice of the students. You were the student picked out of 100 others, how does that make you feel?"

100 others…? That… I didn't know what to say to that. I beat out one hundred other deserving kids just because I wanted to cure a bit of boredom? That just…that didn't seem right to me. "I'm…I'm proud…I guess…"

Cameron gave me a curious look, checking me up and down, studying me. "I see." He said and folded his hands on the table. "Brandon, I'm afraid there's been a mistake. You see, when we interviewed you we thought you had something special to you. Unfortunately… you do not."

"I'm sorry, but…what are you talking about?" I asked inquisitively. What exactly did I not have? I had good grades, I certainly wasn't lacking at that.

"Something I can't say." Cameron sighed. "We're sorry for wasting your time, but you-"

Then there was a flash of black, the sound of flesh meeting wood, and the sound of feet hitting the soft green glass. I looked to my right to find a girl with long black hair, grey eyes, and small nose. Her clothes were jet black and she smirked, while holding the brown box on the table. She turned to us and smirked. "Yoink." She said, then turned and ran.

"Wait!" Cameron called and stood up. "We have to go after her!" The honor society chased after the girl leaving me at the table, staring at where Cameron was sitting.

They were about to say I couldn't join. They were about to say that I didn't have the requirements. I knew this was a stupid idea. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about this club. It was a dumb idea. I stood up and was about to turn around when a voice interrupted me.

"Shut up and go after her!" A small snarky voice said. I looked around, but I was alone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"I said go after her!" I turned to my plain black book bag, and the front pocket was bulging and moving around, the pocket where I put the eggs. I quickly opened it up and fell backwards in surprise. Floating in front of me was…well…me! He had long brown hair, black wire framed glassed, blue eyes, a green hoodie, and a mug in his hand. He snarled at me. "Listen, you want to prove yourself to the honor society, you need to go after that girl!"

"What the hell are you?!" I managed to get out as I rose from the dirt.

"I'll tell you later, right now we have a thief to catch!" He floated off towards the honor society, while stood there.

"Wait, what's your name?" I asked as I chased after him, he was quick.

"I'm Teris, now let's go!"

We ran for almost a mile, Teris somehow knowing where to go. We ran way off the school zone, dashing into the streets and down the sidewalk for the longest time, large buildings of all kinds passed us by, until we came to a closed down museum with a marble white exterior that turned grey due to decay. The windows were boarded up and the doors were wide open. I didn't want to go in there but Teris followed. Still unsure of anything that I was doing right now, I followed.

Entering the museum was a bad idea. There were cobwebs and spiders everywhere, alongside the abandoned and haunted feel to the place, two things I despised immensely. At the center of the museum I managed to find the honor society all glaring at the girl in black, who was way high up on a ledge, laughing at them. "Aw, did the little chess board get all upset?"

"You know you can't even use the wand, why on earth would you steal it?" Cameron asked.

"Let me at her my king, I'll lynch this thief if it's the last thing I do!" James barked.

"He's such a loyal pet isn't he?" The girl asked maliciously and opened up the box. "Oh! It's shiny!" She said enthusiastically, then went to pick it up and gasped. Something must have happened, because she dropped the box, with a large navy blue wand falling out of the box. The honor society held their breath, and Teris yelled at me.

"Brandon!" He called. "Grab it!"

I rushed forward, with no idea what was really bringing me to do it, and snatched the wand out of the air. I didn't know how I got it, but I knew it I had it, and that was what mattered. I turned to the honor society and smiled a little. "I…uh… got your toy back…" I said.

"No way, kid." The girl jumped in front of me. Her shoes had become black combat boots and her hair seemed to be drawn back, a sword now glowed in her hand and if looks could kill, the glare she was giving me right now would have brutally murdered me. "That wand is mine; I stole it, so give it back!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Teris shouted as he floated next to me. "We're not gonna give it back to you because you just want it! If stealing it makes it yours then grabbing it from you makes it ours!"

"Aww, you have a newborn chara." The girl cooed. "Oh, that'll make this so much fun!" She slashed at me, and I panicked. So what was the one thing I did? I threw my hand up, the hand hold the wand, causing the wooden thing to meet the steel blade, yet it somehow managed to hold up perfectly fine, without any damage, in fact it repelled the blade. "The hell?" The girl asked.

Teris turned to me. "Put the watch on it!" The watch? The watch! I had no idea what it would do, but I fished the watch out of my pocket and touched it to the wand, causing both objects to glow and made the watch disappear, causing the thing to vibrate.

"Teris I hope you know what you're doing." I said as I backed up. "Because I have no idea what's going on…"

"Then let me help!" Teris yelled like I had done this before.

"How do you propose I do that?" I said back a little frustrated.

"Open your heart!" Teris called, his eyes staring at the girl.

Open my heart? What did that even mean? How did I do that? Still, there had to be a way, so I focused on the eggs, the way I felt that connection, the way I felt like they were my eggs, like I was the one who needed to protect them. They were mine and no one else's. I knew that I had to protect them, like they were…like they were my children.

I opened my eyes, and touched the wand to my chest. "My heart, unlock!" I called out fiercely and felt the world start to drift away from me. I was alone, and a bright green light glowed in front of me. It felt so warm and familiar, yet strange. I don't know what drove me to do it, but I jumped into the light and it felt…oh how do I describe it? It was like jumping into a warm pool of water and being fully submerged. I closed my eyes and when I opened them I was in front of the girl with the sword.

I was different. My clothes were now a green hooded shirt, and black jeans. My shoes felt like, almost like they were part of my feet. My hair was longer, and went down past my ears. The best part though, was the power. I felt so powerful, so different than normal. I felt like I could take on any challenge presented to me. My mind swirled with ideas, and concepts. Math seemed so easy right now, puzzles would be a breeze. I could calculate every exit in the room, every second someone breathed; I could tell when someone what move a person would make, like the girl with the sword who was swinging towards me.

Oops, I ducked under the blade and stepped to the side, where I found myself pointing the wand at her. "Kill her." A voice in my head said. "What good is a thief anyway? Let's just take her out now, it would be better for everyone." The voice belonged to Teris.

"No." I said aloud. "We're not killing her."

"Who are you…" The girl started to say. "Oh my god, you're talking with your chara aren't you? You are so-"

"Ha!" James tackled her sending her to the floor, while Clara came and grabbed the wand from me.

Having the wand taken away from me felt like jumping out of a warm pool during the winter, my body froze, I felt like I was going to throw up, and all of my energy plummeted. I didn't even know if I could breathe. I opened my eyes again and I was normal once more, sitting on the ground, where Alicia held me up. I stared face to face with the girl in black, she was back to normal as well.

"You know, you're kinda cute when you're sleeping." She flirted.

"Shut it, wench." James said, tying her hands with a rope.

"What…was that…?" I asked.

"We'll explain soon." Cameron said as he walked towards the girl. "So, Angelina, what do you think we should do with Katy?"

Angelina sighed. "Let her go, she didn't do anything too permanent. We got the wand back and no one was hurt. Just let her go."

"I was hoping for a good lynching…" James muttered as he untied her.

"Aw, well I guess you'll have to settle for a seat on the master's lap." Katy said and turned to me. "So…you're the keeper of memories? You don't look it."

"I'm the…what?" I asked while trying to catch my breath.

"We'll tell you later." Alicia sighed. "I hoped today was going to be a good day, but now knight girl went and spoiled it."

Katy smirked as the ropes came off her and she jumped up. "See you later…what was your name…Brandon?" She laughed and ran off.

"Why…why did you…?" I started to ask.

"Don't strain yourself." A small chipmunk voice said, causing me to look up and be greeted with a small woman about Teris' size holding a clipboard. "You've exerted all of your energy. You need to rest."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm isabelle." She said. "Now shut up, and lie down."

"Isabelle that is no way to treat others." Clara said sternly and approached. "Cameron, what do we do about him?"

Cameron studied me again, as if he was looking for something, and then clicked his tongue. "The only thing we can do. We take him in, and tell him about the characters." I tried to say something but Angelina stopped me. "We'll tell you when we get to the school. This is going to take some time…"

And that was how I first learned about the thing known as chara's, and this was the first day that would lead me to my destiny.


	2. What's a chara?

We walked slowly back towards the school, my arm around James as he supported my weight. At first he was speaking nonsense, in a faux old time-y accent and spoke of lynchings or what have you. Soon he calmed down and he seemed to be normal once again, but I still prayed that he didn't change while we traveled back to the school. Cameron, Angelina, and Clara muttered to one another in the front of the group. I couldn't make out their words exactly, but they didn't sound pleased. I also began to notice little people floating around us, like Teris was floating around me. I must have lost my marbles.

We made it to the school court yard once more, and I still felt like crap. My arms felt so heavy, and it took all of my willpower to keep my eyes from closing. James sat me down on at a table across from Cameron, who folded his hands on the table and leaned forward towards me, his eyes staring me down and his face almost scowling at me. "Well, in light of recent events, it looks like you are going to stay with the honor society."

"Could…I…get a little more info…please…?" I panted.

"Of course…allow us to explain." Cameron sat back and a small person in a navy blue suit stood on the table. "Alicia, if you will?"

Alicia cleared her throat and spoke in a very over-the-top fake British accent. "'All children have an egg in their soul, the egg of their hearts, their would-be-selves.'"

"So what does that mean?" I asked after gulping for air.

"When a child determines their dream or wishes for something deeply. They form an egg in their hearts, known as their character egg. This is who or what they want to be in life." Clara clarified. "With some people, their eggs can come out, and they can give birth to an outer character egg, which can hatch into a character or chara for short. When this happens the person becomes a guardian."

"Guardian's protect people's dreams from being destroyed." James nodded. "It's our goal to make sure that no one gets hurt."

"By people like that girl, right?" I asked.

"Not exactly." James answered. "While yes it is an important job of ours to protect people from others like Katy, it is also our job to defend people against X eggs. X eggs are made by people who become sad. Normally when their dreams are affected, people punish their own eggs, revealing their weakness to others, and some people, like Katy, can use that weakness to create X eggs, evil things that harm other people, powered by someone's despair."

"Why…would…someone do…that?" I wondered out loud.

"We…don't know…" Angelina admitted. "We don't have all the details ourselves. It's been used before to find something…of importance, but it's a known fact that that thing is not here. We think it's for another purpose, but we don't know what that purpose is. Whatever it is, we know that they need the keeper's weapons, and that's why we need to protect the wand."

"The keeper was the first person to develop a character egg, and he used weapons like the wand to defend the dreams of others, and he left one of those items here with us." Cameron explained. "Only a chosen few can wield the items. You happen to be one of them."

"So…what does that mean?" Brandon asked. "And…why am I so…tired?"

"You unlocked your heart." Cameron said in a matter-of-fact tone. "When a chara and a guardian really need to, they can fuse together and become very powerful. This takes a long time to learn to do properly though. Clara believes that because you were wielding the wand, you were able to use some of the energy from the wand. Sort of like a battery, and when you changed you began sapping the energy away like it was nothing. Clara theorizes that you lost all that energy from…well…thinking…"

"…I can't…think?" I asked.

"Well not when you're unlocked with Teris." Clara nodded. "After talking with him, Teris seems to be skilled in tactics. So by thinking, you're using his power. The connection between a chara and a guardian takes a long time to master, and until then you will use energy for everything you do. Eventually you'll be able to do everything with no trouble, but that might take…oh…maybe a year or two?"

"Oh…lovely…" I muttered. "A year or two just to master the art of thinking."

"So…Teris is a new born?" The little man in the navy blue suit asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" Teris said threateningly.

"Apparently he isn't very nice either…" The little woman with the clipboard said.

"Aye, but he is a skilled warrior." Another little man wearing chainmail said. "He will be a great comrade as we fight against the darkness of despair!"

"Guys, look!" Called another little voice, causing everyone to look over. Carrying the white egg from my bookbag was a little woman wearing a school girl uniform. "He's got another one."

"Don't touch that!" I called out rather emotionally and grabbed for the egg. Everyone looked over at me, and stared as if it was the most ridiculous request I had ever made. I'm not sure why I felt so emotional about the egg, but I guess since I gave birth to it, I must have some sort of fatherly instinct about it?

I also began to notice that the egg looked different than it did this morning. Now there was a sort of design on it, like it was a well painted Easter egg. There was a black middle now in the center and a bit of white was left around it, revealing a top hat. What did that mean exactly?

"You have two eggs, then?" Cameron asked. "Well this is certainly interesting."

"Interesting?" I asked.

"Well, it isn't unheard of for someone to have two chara's, from what I've heard the others happen to have a couple of members with twin chara's too."

"There are others?" I asked. "Like…this is a common thing?"

"Oh yes." Alicia said. "America, England, France, Japan, we have 'honor societies' all around the world! Although some of them are a little different with the tier system, I heard that some use cards to determine their pos-"

"Nevermind that." Cameron interrupted. "I'd like to officially congratulate you for being admitted into the Honor Society."

"Um…right…about that…" I started. "Look, could I have a couple of minutes to think about it? It's not that-"

"Wait, hold the phone." James said. "Are you trying to back out of the club?"

"I just want to think about it." I clarified. "Especially since…you know…this all seems crazy. Little people floating around, eggs and dreams, all of this seems rather silly…"

"That's fine." Cameron nodded. "Can you walk yet?" I stood up just to show him I was perfectly fine. Well, fine enough to walk, but arms were still a bit sore, but I think I managed to recover pretty well. "Good, you may take a minute. Don't worry about class, the honor society has a few special privileges when it comes to that sort of thing."

I started to walk away when Cameron spoke again. "No matter what your decision is though, you don't have a choice. You will join us." I didn't look at him, but I could tell his expression darkened. "You're the only one able to wield the wand, and you have charas yourself, you have no choice but to join."

I kept walking forward till I entered the beige halls again and once I was out of eyesight, I sighed in relief. "Oh my god…what have I gotten myself into…"

"Man, screw them." A little voice said, scaring me half to death. I jumped to see that the source was Teris. "Using fear to try and bully us, why can't we just get a break, huh?"

"What even are you?" I asked. "Why are you following me around?"

"You and I, we're stuck together, like it or not. You can keep thinking I'm a trick of your mind, or you can keep thinking that we're something else, I'm good with whatever." Teris said with a deep breath.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Listen stupid, here's the deal. You can believe in us or not, I don't care. You don't, I disappear, you do, great, but you don't gotta yell at me."

"I…" I needed a minute to take that in. Did he just say he'd disappear? "What do you mean by that?"

"Disappear. You know, blam, splat, kick the can, die." Teris said nonchalantly, but there was something in his eyes that said something else and suddenly I felt like a complete jerk. Was thinking all that stuff before, hurting him? When I thought I had just gone crazy? When I said this all seemed silly? Was all of that hurting him?

"I'm…I'm sorry…" I said quietly. "I…I didn't…"

"Yeah…I kinda got that…" Teris said, looking away from me. "Just…whatever, I don't care…" He kept looking around as if he was trying to focus on something else. "But it's…nice to know… that you…care…"

I couldn't help but smile at that. It seemed like such a childish thing to say, and it was coming from what was pretty much a fairy of reality, that made me a laugh a little.

"Hey wipe that-" Teris stopped in the middle of his sentence as a sob was heard from somewhere. He looked at me, and gave me a quiet sign as we headed towards the sob.

Down the hall, and traversing a little, we made our way to where a group of girls surrounded another girl. They didn't look that much younger than me, maybe sixth graders? I couldn't tell. I just knew there was a girl in the middle crying her eyes out. I never got why, but something about that just bugged me. "Hey!" I called and marched up to them. "Get away from her!" I clenched my fists and something seemed to make them scatter. I'm not sure if it was the surprise of something getting caught back here, or if it was just my good intimidation skills. I bet I looked so cool right-

"Over here, Mrs. Hall!" Called a familiar voice and I turned to find James. So, he was the one who scared them off. That made me feel a little…less cool. "I love that trick." He muttered and kneeling down, which I mirrored.

Kneeling on the ground was a girl with thick glasses. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, mostly; a lot of it seemed to have gone loose, during…well, whatever happened. Her clothes also looked a little roughed up to; she wore a short sleeve grey shirt, but one of the sleeves seemed torn, and her pants, black leggings, seemed crazy too, one pant leg was shorter than the other, which looked odd. Her face was beet red, and her eyes looked puffy, like she had been crying for a while.

"Hey…it's okay." James said soothingly. "They're gone now, no one's gonna hurt you now."

"It doesn't matter!" She yelled. "They're right, I should have never gotten up today!" She sobbed into her hands. "I'll never be…I'll never…"

Something clicked in my head, and I knew something bad was going to happen. I looked at James who stared at me. "Get back." He handed me something wooden, the wand. How did he know that it was going to change? I just did as I was told and backed up. The girl's eyes got really wide and she stood straight up. There was a flash, like the lights went out and when I saw her next a dark black egg with a white X on it floated next to her, radiating an aura of purple.

"Brandon!" Teris called, at my side.

"Right…" I said hesitantly and pulled the wand to my heart. "I hope this works."

I took a deep breath, and then I took the plunge. "My heart!" I called and pointed the want at the center of my chest, just like before. "Unlock!" Once more everything blacked out. I was in a blank room, the walls, floor, and ceiling glaring a brilliant eggshell white color, except for the spot in front of me, which was the familiar green pool-like thing. It seemed bigger than it was before, which I thought was odd but maybe that was just my imagination. I took a step forward and fell into the water, where my eyes instinctively shut and when they opened again, I was back in reality once more. My clothes once again changed into the green hoodie and the black jeans that I had on before, and I felt my voice wanting to shout something out. "Solitary Unlock!"

"I don't have Excalibur with me…" He yelled towards me. "I won't be able to fight with you."

"It'll be fine." Teris said in my head. "Let's just smash it and be done."

"Smash it?" I asked and tried to keep my thoughts rather blank, though I did wonder what would happen if we did smash the egg, and Teris' thoughts pretty much told me it wouldn't be good. We'd help our situation, but we wouldn't help the girl. "No, there has to be another way."

"I'll never be able to design anything…" I heard the egg mumble.

"What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"My dreams are stupid!" It yelled with a feminine voice and a large purple ray shot out of the aura and fired towards me, making me have to step to the side to miss it. Unfortunately, it seems that my depth perception was just as terrible with Teris as it was normally, as the side of my arm got hit with the ray. It felt a lot like boiling water was poured onto my arm, making the skin burn.

"Brandon, we have to smash it!" James yelled to me.

"We can't smash it!" I called to James. "We have to find another way!"

"There isn't another way!" He called. "She'll be fine, don't worry!"

"No…there has to be another way…" I muttered.

"There is!" A small voice called from below. I looked around before finding the white egg with the top hat, my egg, rolling towards us. The egg was cracking, and then there was flash, and a little man wearing a white dress shirt, black dress pants and shoes, carrying cane, and wearing a top hat floated towards me. "You need to calm her, assure the girl that her dreams aren't stupid."

"And you have to throw in some more energy." Teris said. "Energy that we don't have. I'm not even sure if we have the power to cleanse the egg."

"We gotta try…" I whispered to Teris and turned to the egg. "Hey…uh…your dreams are not stupid…there…uh…"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" The egg said and shot another ray towards me, that I luckily managed to dodge this time.

"You have to mean it!" The little one in the top hat said. "You need to believe in what your saying, it's the only way!"

"I…" I started. "I'll try…" I said and took a step forward, clearing my throat. "Yes, I do know what I'm talking about. People will look down on your dreams…and you need to hold onto them or you'll lose them forever…if you don't…you'll…you'll never be able to accomplish anything!" Whatever I said, I guess it must have been enough because suddenly my entire body felt like it was acting on it's own. "Negative egg, lock on!" I shouted and pointed the wand at the egg. "Open heart!" A white beam shot out of the wand hit the egg, causing it to change into something to happen with it, but I couldn't see it, the white beam was really bright and I had to close my eyes as it did it's work. When I opened them back up the x egg was gone and I was back in my normal clothes again. I was tired, not as tired as I was before, but still extremely tired. James kneeled down next to the girl and Alicia came running in towards the girl.

"Did she-" She started to ask.

"She was." James confirmed. "But Brandon cleansed her egg. It's still there…I think…It was a pretty flashy way to take care of an egg but it still worked."

Alicia walked towards me and put a hand on my shoulder, I noticed that the little school girl chara was hanging around her. "Thank you." Alicia said. "Hey…your other egg hatched!"

"Yeah…this is…um…" I started.

"My name is Gentus." He said with a bow, kneeling before the chara in the uniform, grabbing her hand and kissing it. "How do you do, my lovelies?"

"Oh god, knock it off romeo." Teris sighed.

"Hey Alicia?" I asked. "These x eggs…do we deal with them a lot?"

"Yeah, they're the biggest threat we have, even bigger than people like Katy. We need to protect people's eggs, especially from themselves." Alicia said. "That's our job."

I thought about it and nodded. "Alright, tell Cameron I'm going to go back to class, and…I'm glad to be a member of the honor society."

"Yes!" The girl in the uniform said. "I knew we'd get some new friends!"

"Vorpa!" Alicia laughed. "Alright, I'll tell him. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." I said. "See you tomorrow."

"Brandon." James called. I turned towards him and he smiled. "I'm glad we'll get to work together." I couldn't help but smile at that. I guess now…I had friends and that felt…that felt wonderful.

I'm going to skip over school and getting home because honestly, do you really want to hear about what I did in science class? I didn't think so. Now for the rest of the day nothing really happened, until right before bed, when I had just gotten changed after a shower. Now my room wasn't all that interesting. I had a cream colored carpet, with large mahogany dresser. On top of the dresser was a big TV, and I don't mean big as in large screen, I mean big as in it weighs more than I do. I had a twin bed with a blue bed sheet on it, a grey blanket and two white pillows. Off to one side of the bed was my laptop, which currently sat with a blank screen. The walls were sort of an orange color, which reminded me of sherbet ice cream for some reason. I had a bed side table near my bed, which currently held a black alarm clock, and two eggs, Teris and Gentus'.

I described how Gentus' egg looked now, but Teris' egg was also different. It was green on the tips, leaving about an inch in the center bare white, and a green coffee mug sat on the center of the shape. I don't get why I'm starting to see things differently, but Teris mentioned that normal people can't see chara's, and even guardians take a little time before they start to notice how different things are. Teris and Gentus sat in their eggs talking with one another. Next to them was the wand, lying there on the table. I made a note to keep it close, especially since the thing seemed to be unbreakable.

"So, now we're defenders of justice, champions of light, Protectors of-" Gentus started.

"Gentus." Teris interrupted. "Knock it off."

"You, my friend, need to lighten up." Gentus noted. "Going through life seeing the cup half empty is boring, you gotta be positive."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that-" Teris started.

"Guys." I said, wearing a black cotton T-shirt and blue shorts. "Don't fight. Come on, it's bed time."

I was about to get into bed, when I heard a knocking at the window. I got up, and walked towards the window. Maybe there was a bird or something? Nope. I opened the curtains and found Katy staring at me through the window. I gasped and backed up. She tried to say something, but the window blocked out what she was saying.

"Guys…Katy's back…" I said.

"A lady?" Gentus asked. "Well let her in!"

"Gentus, this is the girl that nearly killed us over the wand." Teris said. "She's the bad guy."

"So…don't let her in?" Gentus asked.

"If she's here, she's here for a reason, and she doesn't seem to be forcing her way through. I think we should let her in." Teris suggested.

"You guys are confusing." Gentus sighed. "I'm going to bed."

I walked towards the window, unlocked it, and lifted it up. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Jeez, leaving a lady out in the cold like this, you have some nerve, Brandon." Katy said with a smile, and pulled the mesh screen between us down and walked into my room.

"First, it's summer, it's not cold. Second, I'm waiting for my answer." I said. For the first time in my life, I had a girl in my room. I didn't know whether to be pleased, or if I should grab the wand and prepare for a battle of my life. Why did girls have to be so confusing?

"I just want to talk." Katy said. I noticed that she had a chara next to her, a little woman wearing leather armor, like some I had seen from a video game, and carried a sword on her belt. "Listen, I know they told you about everything now, probably about chara's and X-eggs and everything but there is one problem. I'm not your enemy."

"Seemed like that. I mean, I don't normally swing swords at my friends." I said coldly.

"Right…look…I'm sorry about that. I just…I need the wand to find something else. Something I think is important, but because I want to find it, the honor society thinks I'm working against them, but we both had the same agenda, we both want to stop the X-eggs." Katy said earnestly.

"They said you caused X-eggs." I told her.

"They also said I'm the bad guy." Katy said. "Look, I don't want to be your enemy. I want some help." Katy took a deep breath. "I'm looking for the sword of dreams."

"The…what now?" I asked.

"I thought they told you everything." Katy smirked. "Well, a long time ago, there was a guy who was called the keeper. He used several weapons to fight against despair and depression. He left those weapons all around to help people. The weapons each help guardians by using things that help Charas develop. I know that the sword of dreams is around here, and the wand can help find it. I know that if we have the sword and the wand, we can fight off almost any attack against us! I can't do it by myself though, I need your help."

I thought over it for a second. It didn't seem like a bad idea. Especially since it seemed like we could really use the help. "Alright. I'll help you."

Katy attacked me with a big hug. "Oh thank you so much! I'll find you when I get closer to finding out where it is!" She walked towards the window and turned back towards me. "Good Night, Brandon." She jumped out the window, and flipped up. I was sure I heard a thump like she landed on the roof.

I myself didn't really know what to do then. I closed my window and noticed that Teris was studying me. "You sure working with her won't lead to any trouble?"

"I'm not sure." I said. "It's a risk, but it's worth it, right?"

"If you say so." Teris said and floated back to his egg.

I know it seemed odd to trust her, especially since she tried to kill me earlier, but she seemed to earnest about it. I was sure she was lying, or at least, I think she wasn't lying. Whatever happened next, I'd have to wait until tomorrow to find out.


	3. First day on the job

Getting to school was certainly interesting that day. Keeping two small people inside eggs in your bookbag feels like you're stealing something from the store. I constantly have to make sure they aren't doing something crazy in there, it's hard! On top of that I also have to explain to people why it is that I always have to check my bookbag every couple of seconds, and I have to hope that they don't fight with one another inside.

Getting back on track though, I arrived at school the next day, paranoid as hell! I had to make sure no one saw them and that they weren't shouting at one another. Teris and Gentus are the weirdest pair ever. One of them is an optimistic, actor sort with a cane and a hop in his step, and the other is a realistic, down to earth guy who has some interesting ways of taking care of things. I'm beginning to wonder if Teris might be a little malicious, considering his view on things. Every time I was pair with him he kept pushing me to destroy or kill someone. When I fought Katy, he wanted me to kill her and when I fought the X egg he wanted me to smash it. Gentus on the other hand seemed so bright and cheerful, he didn't seem like he could hurt a fly. On top of that, Gentus is certainly ditzy. Whenever Teris uses a big word Gentus has to ask what it means, he was confused about how a toaster worked, and he didn't understand much of anything in the morning. At least if I ever character unlock with him, I can feel safe about thinking.

I got to school while it was still pretty dark outside, the sun was rising at the horizon but everything was nice and new. I liked it like this. I didn't know why I did, but something about the dawn felt so peaceful and calm. I walked out of the car and towards the school when I heard a voice call for me.

"Hey, Brandon!" A familiar female voice said. I turned to the left and found Alicia and James running towards me. Alicia wore an orange shirt today with skinny jeans. James was wearing a black T-shirt with an orange basketball on it and a pair of black and silver shorts.

I noticed their chara's were floating around them. The little knight, who I guessed was Excalibur from what James said about not being able to fight without him, stood on his guardian's shoulder, His shining silver armor being hard to notice in the dim light. The one in the school girl uniform, Vorpa, sat on Alicia's shoulder. I found it rather odd that they just sat out in the open, why didn't anyone notice, further more why didn't I notice when I first met them?

"Hey. Is there…uh…a meeting or something?" I asked, hoping nothing was going on.

"No. We just want to hang out with you." James said.

"Yeah! We barely know anything about you!" Alicia declared. "We want to have a Q&amp;A with you!"

She grabbed my arm and started dragging me around the school. Once more we went through the beige, boring halls only this time there weren't any lights in the classrooms, except for one, a classroom with no nameplate. There was the room number "A-164" but there was no teacher name on the navy blue plate, which seemed odd. The door also looked a little odd, having a sign on it that said "CHS"

"CHS?" I asked my companions.

"Character Honor Society." James clarified. "This is the Honor Society club house."

He opened the door revealing a large nearly empty classroom, or that's what I would have called it if I was seeing the real thing, this room was definitely more clubhouse than classroom. Two large white sofas sat parallel to one another, with a glass coffee table dividing the gap between them. At the opposite end of where I was standing, a desk with Cameron's name on it sat, covered in papers and pens, and right next to it was another desk with Angelina's name on it, which was a lot neater then Cameron's was, holding only a couple of organized pens and a single blank sheet of paper. Off to the sides were the windows, which had some red curtains drawn, preventing any chance of natural light entering the room. Large grey lights hung from the ceiling, sort of running the almost regal feel of the room, but then again it was supposed to be a classroom after all.

Sitting on the far end of the left couch was Clara, in a blue blouse, and black skirt, a book in her hands as she played with her red hair. Her chara, who's name I didn't quite know yet, was sitting the back of the couch doing the same thing.

When the door closed she looked up at us, and waved. "Hello." She said and put the book on the table. "What's going on?"

Before James or Alicia could speak I spoke out first. "Whoa! How did you get all this stuff?"

"According to the student handbook a club is allowed to bring its own equipment into the school so long as it doesn't affect classroom activities. By saying our equipment is all of this, we can get away by bringing this in as long as the school doesn't have to deal with it. At the same time though, we have to use a classroom out in the boonies of the school so that it doesn't affect any class trying to learn. Plus it helps that Angelina's dad works in the corporate offices of some big name furniture store." Clara stated almost like it was out of a textbook.

"Anyway." Alicia said. "We're gonna interrogate Brandon!"

Clara seemed confused and looked over to James. "We're going to get to know him better." James sighed, walked towards Clara and sat down.

Alicia dragged me over to the other couch and we sat down as well. "So, tell us about your…home life!"

"I mean…I…" I stuttered looking for my bookbag and opening up the top pocket so that Gentus and Teris could get out. "I…don't know about that…it's kind of a long story."

"We got time." James said. "Spill it."

"Uh…could we do a different question please?" I asked, probably having my face turn a little red as I said that.

"I suppose…" Alicia grumbled. "Alright, tell us about your dreams!"

"I don't have any." I waved my hand. "I try to take life one day at a time, you know?"

"That's weird…" Clara said in thought. "Charas are born through the dreams. It seems weird that you have chara's without any dream…"

"What about a wish?" Alicia asked. "Did you wish for something?"

"…Um…" I started. "I…uh…I did…but…"

"But what?" James asked. "We're not gonna make fun of you for it, if that's what you're thinking. Look, my dream was to protect others, that is why my chara is a knight intent on protecting people."

"My dream is to be the best student ever!" Alicia said. "That's why my chara wears a school uniform."

"My dream is to be the greatest accountant around, like my dad is." Clara told me. "There, you know our dreams, tell us about your wish."

To be honest, I didn't want to tell them. Not only did it feel so…weird to tell anyone about a wish that granted me two mini people that hatched from eggs, but I didn't really know these people that well, and considering the content of the wish included whether or not I should abandon the honor society ship, this could be devastating to whatever relationship we had. Then again, not telling them could also be bad to. This was sort of a lose-lose situation. "I asked…whether or not…I should…quit the honor society…"

James and Alicia exchanged some looks. Clara gave me an odd stare before speaking. "You thought about…leaving us?"

"Look, I was confused. I didn't know if I should stay or go, I sort of wanted to live my old life, and I didn't even know about chara's yet…it was-"

"It's fine, Brandon." Alicia surprisingly said. "You didn't know us yet, you were scared of the club itself, not the people in it."

"Besides, we are kind of intimidating. That's why we had Angelina get you, she's good at that sort of thing." James calmingly told me.

"Speaking of which, what do you think about Cameron and Angelina?" Clara asked.

"Cameron's nice…I guess, but he seems a little…mean. Why is he the leader?" I asked them.

"Cameron can character transform." Clara said.

"What?" I asked. "I thought you needed the wand to character transform?"

"No, that's only for some people. Cameron's been with Kennedy, his chara, for so long, that the two have formed a bond and can character transform with each other. Technically anyone who's been around their chara for long enough can character transform if they have the energy and patience for it." Clara recited like she was reading a book. "The reason you can do it so early is because you have the wand with you."

"Interesting…" I said like I wasn't that impressed when in reality I was. It took so much of my energy to do that, how could someone like Cameron do it so easily? Was he really that powerful?

"So…I have a question about being a part of the honor society…what do I do exactly?" I asked, sort of wondering if I could possibly balance out some personal time and my time spent as an honor member.

"Well, it's not all that fun…" James said. "There's a lot of planning and paperwork involved. Since we're under the guise of being the school's student council, we actually have to do student council work, when we're not protecting the school from the worst things possible. It can be fun sometimes but mostly, it sucks."

"I see…" I said. "Is it really so boring?"

"Not all the time." Alicia said. "We get to plan the spirit dance next week, and since your new, Cameron's probably going to have you trained in some chara combat, it'll be fun!"

"Speaking of being new." Clara started and pulled a paper she had folded up out of her book. "This is your new schedule. After a certain…incident we had a couple of years back, we always try to at least pair two members of the honor society up. Now that we have our six members back James and Alicia can have another person with them now. You'll be having classes with them."

My schedule had completely changed now, not only in my personal life, but now in my school life too. It didn't matter too much since this was middle school and there weren't many electives to take anyways, but it was still weird.

"Guys, class is about to start." James said getting up, followed by the rest of us as we dispersed from the room and out into our classes.

Once again, we're going to skip over class. You may ask why I skip over class so much, but it is so boring! I never thought I'd say that about school work but it's true. Honestly, would you prefer me talking about global studies, or would you prefer me talking about crazy floating mini-people, magic, and epic fights? Yeah, that's what I thought, anyways…

After school we came back to the club house, where we sat around the table, listening to Cameron.

"Now…" He began. "It has come to my attention that we need to prepare for the Spirit Dance, the school wide dance later in the year. That, I'll assign to Clara and Angelina to work on. Alicia, I'd like for you to go through the event calendar, and find a day that isn't conflicting with anything else, I'd like to have a big turnout for this day. James, you, Brandon, and I are going to work on combat for a while. We're going to try and work on a couple of things."

James clapped me on the shoulder and I went with him and Cameron out of the club and outside, which wasn't that far from where we were actually, just a couple doors down.

It was nice outside, there was nice breeze flowing and it was felt a lot like fall, which it was. The picnic tables that once stood in the center of the courtyard had now been moved, leaving a large empty gap where something could be done, like combat training.

Cameron walked to the center of the gap and turned to me. "Brandon there are key aspects of character transformation that you need to be aware of. James, being skilled in chara combat, and myself, being skilled in transformations, are going to teach you, but you need to listen to your charas."

"…Right…that's gonna be a little hard without…" I started.

"Us?" Gentus asked with a smirk on his face.

"That is precisely the first thing you should know." Cameron said. "Your charas cannot be seen by people who do not have charas themselves." He motioned to his chara, Kennedy, whose name I still did not know, and the chara landed on his shoulder.

James did the same thing with Excalibur, except the knight chara chose to stand on James' head.

"The next thing you need to learn is the different ways of connecting with your chara. There is resonance, possession, and Transformation. Speaking of which, you need to have one of these." Cameron grabbed something out of his pocket and threw it to me. A silver chain with a pawn chess piece symbol on it landed at my feet. I picked it up and tied it around my neck. "That is a symbol. Symbols are marks of control with guardians. When it glows a certain color, we know that you are resonating with one of your chara, you are both sharing the same emotions and ideas. We will know when possession takes place when it changes to the symbol on your chara's egg, and with transformation…well I think that's obvious."

"Alright…but how do I do the other two? Transformation I can do with the wand, but then there are the other two…things." I said.

"Only you can figure that out." Cameron nodded. "Now then, there is transfor-"

There was a loud yelp not too far from here. Immediately Cameron and James turned towards it. James already had a sword and tabard seem to spring forth from his chest and belt, and he immediately took off.

"Looks like we can't take a break." Cameron sighed. "Come along, Pawn." He dashed off, leaving me to sigh and follow as well.

We came to another part of the school, the part facing towards a set of trees fenced off from the school. There was very little room, and except for a couple of doors and windows, almost nothing important was there. That is, except for the two guys there. One of which was some small boy, looked like a third grader to me, with short red hair, green shorts, and T-shirt with some kind of cartoon character on it. He was on the ground, scared. Standing in front of him was a tall guy with long black hair, and piercing blue and green eyes. His complexion was very pale, and his clothes looked really scraggly. The most important feature he had was his chara, a little guy with a creepy mask on his face, and a pistol in his hand, which matched the same one in the hand of the tall guy.

Cameron and I arrived just in time to see James start barking at him. "What foul thing do you think you are doing to this child you miserable street rat? I will have your head for this!"

The guy looked up at James, and then stared at me and Cameron. "Huh, I can see it now. No wonder she is interested in you." He said lightly. "Well, personally I don't like confrontations I know I'll lose, so I'll just leave you to your job." He smiled wickedly, before turning to the kid and firing his gun. There was a loud bang and the kid fell to the ground, before a black egg with a white X on it floated up into the air. The tall guy laughed and vaulted over the iron fence, running into the forest. I tried to go after him but Cameron put a hand on my shoulder. "Egg. Now."

"Right…" I nodded. I grabbed the wand out of my pocket and pointed the tip to my heart. "Let's go Teris. My heart, Unlock!"

There was the flash again, and I had no idea where I was. The room I was in…it felt familiar. There were wooden walls with a large window overlooking something, and a large green pool in the floor. The details of this place were…well…weird. It looked like the details and of everything was really pixelated, like a video on internet or something, but what made it even weirder was how it felt. It was welcoming, and haunting at the same time. It made me want to look around and stop dead in my tracks. I didn't get that long to think about it though as I fell into the pool and emerged once more, merged with Teris. "Solitary unlock!" I called out.

"I'm so…scared…" The egg mumbled to me.

"You don't have to be scared…the guy is gone." I said soothingly.

"There's so much fear!" The egg called and fired a large purple arrow at me, which I quickly parried with the wand. Unfortunately that wasn't the only arrow. There was another arrow, that hit my foot, and suddenly it felt frozen in place. I couldn't move it and it felt so cold.

"What the…?" I said.

"Hark, beast, I will demolish you!" James called out, and started charging but was ordered to stop.

"James knock it off." Cameron said, his appearance changed to that of a blue suit and a long scepter was held in his hands. "This was a task for Brandon, and I'm disgusted by his carelessness. It looks like I'll need to take care of this." He aimed the scepter at the egg and shouted. "There is no reason to be scared of anything. Fear is only an illusion, you're scared of it because you want to be, but I know that if you truly believe in yourself, you can find a way to tackle this." He took a breath and watched as the egg didn't replay. "Negative heart, lock on!" He flipped the scepter, revealing a small white diamond on the bottom of his scepter. "Open heart!" He called and a white beam fired from the staff and at the egg, causing a small glow to happen.

My leg could move again and I fell onto my back, falling out of my transformation with Teris. "Ow…" I muttered.

Cameron put the scepter down and returned to normal, then turned to me. "You have a lot of work to do, Brandon. Focus on that and maybe, you can become a decent guardian." He walked away from me.

Ouch, was I really that bad?

After calming James down, he called Clara and Angelina, while Angelina and James took care of the kid, I talked with Clara.

"You never told me that Cameron could cleanse eggs before." I said.

"Yes…yes…I guess you call it that…" She muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "The egg is cleansed right?"

"I think so…" Clara said. "The kid seems mostly fine and the egg is gone, but it doesn't make a lick of sense."

"What?" I asked.

"I think…" Clara started to say. "Actually never mind. I don't have any evidence to back up my claim. She turned away from me. "The meeting is over Brandon. Why don't you head home?"

I did as I was told, and went home but I couldn't figure out what Clara meant by all of that. I hadn't been a guardian that long, but I knew that egg was cleansed, so what did she mean? I tried to ask Gentus and Teris about it, but they were in the same boat I was. On top of that, what was up with the room and the wand? Something was up, and I don't think that even all of the guardians know what's going on. Clara is hiding something, she knows something we don't, but why won't she tell me? Does she not trust me yet? I…I think I need some more time to think. This was confusing, but I could think of one person who might know what Clara was talking about.

I needed to find Katy.


	4. The girl and the Pawn

It's been about a month since the start of school, and about a month since I joined the honor society. Let me tell you something, chara training is hard! Not only is it tiring but you have to learn all of these different types of attacks, how to counter and block, how to fly, it was awful! The worst part about it is that I'm awful at this. I can tell you almost nothing about tactics, I have no idea how to block properly, and flying is possibly the most nauseating thing I have ever done in my entire life. When I was younger I always wanted to know what it was like to fly; now I don't even want to get on a plane.

Life hasn't really changed all that much either. School's been…well…school, we've been investigating what that creepy guy has been up to, and we've been planning school events, most notably the spirit dance which I'll tell you about later. (We're not at that part yet.) The good news is that we haven't had to deal with any X eggs at all. It's almost like they just disappeared.

I haven't been able to find Katy. I know I need to, but she hasn't appeared yet, what can I say, that girl is elusive. I've even thought about asking the rest of the honor society about her, but remembering what happened between them and her before, I decided against it.

So today, was the day that things started to get a little…chaotic again. We sat in the clubhouse talking, when Cameron made an announcement that took me back a bit. It was an after school meeting, something we normally did now.

"Now remember guys." He started. "The spirit dance is a really important day for the club. It's the very first event that we host, so we need to show everyone how dedicated we are. As such, we all need to show up to the dance, so make sure you have a date." Now everyone was so excited for this, but as you all remember, I don't like social gatherings…or school events…or people in general. "And that is the last of today's announcements. Alright, let's go."

I grabbed my bag, swung it over my shoulder, and exited the plush clubhouse and walked into the soundless, beige hallways, until I got ambushed by Alicia and James. Alicia was wearing a bright yellow polo shirt and khaki capris. James wore a nice silver colored jacket with blue jeans.

"So…" Alicia said with a mischievous smirk on her face. "We gotta have dates at the dance, and you need to find a girl."

"Alicia…shouldn't you focus on finding your own date." I countered.

"Alicia and I are going together." James said simply. "We figured that out when the dance was getting prepped. So tell us, who are you going to ask?"

"Do we really need to go to the dance?" Teris asked. "Yeah, I get that it's required, but what happens if we don't show up? Seems like something we'd do."

"What are you talking about?" Gentus asked. "Of course we are going! Festivities, dancing, women, oh how my gentle heart burns like a thousand suns, oh how I yearn for the event to come."

"Gentus." Teris rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"See, you even got a chara created perfectly for something like this." James said. "You have to come to the dance and you have to have a date."

"I don't…I don't know anybody…" I muttered. "How am I supposed to ask a stranger to be my date?"

"Why with romance, my guardian friend." Gentus flew in front of me. "Make a big scene, get down on one knee, and confess your love for her! There is no way she can turn you down!"

"Oh, that sounds so beautiful!" Alicia cried out.

"…Right…" James said. "Maybe we should find a girl for him. Come on Brandon, you gotta know someone, name the first girl who comes to your mind, come on."

You know, I almost said Katy right there. Not because I wanted to go to the dance with her mind you, she was kind of cute, but trying to kill me is sort of a turn off. So instead I thought of the second girl who came to my mind, and that might not have been the best idea. "Angelina." I blurted.

"Angelina?" Alicia asked. "Really? Her?"

"Oh, how daring!" Gentus sighed. "The queen, forced into a relationship with the all-powerful evil king, the queen who awaits her one true love to come and rescue her, her knight in shining armor, her hero who-"

"Gentus, that's enough!" I said, feeling the heat from my cheeks. "Look, it's not that big of a deal."

"Hey man, I wasn't saying anything." James sighed and looked up. "Angelina's a cool girl, she's pretty, she's close, and considering you…'don't know anyone', it works. I think she's a good choice."

"Gentus is right though, it is kind of romantic, considering you would logically pair the king and queen together as a couple." Alicia said dreamily.

"Look, it's a nice thought but I don't think I'll be able to ask her." I said. "I'm not the most charismatic and…"

"We'll help you." James nodded. "Yeah…We'll help you and Angelina get together."

"Really?" I asked. "But…why?"

"Because it's so romantic!" Alicia said happily.

"That, and we're your friends." James nodded. "We help you get the girl, man, don't worry about it." He clapped me on the shoulder and kept walking forward. "See you tomorrow."

That night was when the…dreams happened, if you can even call them that. I went home that night and went to bed, and then I had dreamed up…something. The dreams weren't normal, most dreams that I had had in my life were like real life. Where I saw it all from my perspective, but this…this was different. I didn't remember anything except for the creepy guy, in glowing black plate armor, holding a sword. He had a white X tattooed on his left cheek and for some reason the thought made me angry. Why? I don't know, but whatever it was, it made me so angry.

I awoke that night with start. I must have waked from a nightmare or something, as I don't normally wake up in the middle of the night. I checked my clock to find the red lights flashing one thirty two. Great, in was one in the morning. The image of the creepy guy was burned into my brain, and I felt some pain behind my eyes.

Both Gentus and Teris' eggs were closed, with some sort of small sound coming from Gentus' egg. I looked over to the window where I could make out the light of the full moon gleaming down onto the floor through the curtain. Not really having anything else to do right now, I went to the window.

The dark black sky was illuminated by the dazzling stars. I remember back when I thought stars didn't do anything, and wishes were just that, how wrong I was, considering the two sleeping mini-people in my room right now. The ground and houses around were wrapped in a shroud of darkness, making thing so hard to see. I couldn't really pick anything else out much from the outside world, except for some thumping outside followed by a small female gasp.

"Brandon?" I looked up and found Katy staring back down at me, her eyes wide with surprise. I don't know if it was because I was tired or what but for some reason, I wasn't surprised. "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't go back to sleep." I answered. "What are you doing up?"

"What I always do." She said and looked out across the houses. "I love being up here."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" I asked.

"The freedom." She said simply. "It feels so…oh…just come on up here." She offered me a hand that I sheepishly took, and pulled me up. Yes, this girl who was about the same age as me was able to lift me, by herself, one handed. I didn't know how she was able to do that, until I noticed the sword on her belt, and the fact that she had some leather padded clothing on, almost like it was armor. She must have been in a character change.

Honestly, I didn't quite understand why Katy liked it on the roof, it was really high up, and I guess there was a lot of space. It felt really nice up here sure, but nothing to special. Still, she seemed to like it a lot so, I told her. "Your right…it does feel nice up here."

I think she smiled, but I couldn't really tell, it was dark. She sat down on the front part of the house and I followed. From here you could see some lights from some stores not too far from here, which was pretty nice, it at least gave you something else to look at.

"So, how are things?" Katy asked me.

"Fine, I guess. James has been trying to teach me how to battle, but it's not really been working. I've been working on character transformation with Teris, but nothing has really changed." I told her, trying to not bring up the spirit dance, but I guess I might have given that away somehow.

"What else? You look like you're bothered about something." Katy noted. Were all girls good at guessing things from facial expressions or was it just Katy?

"Well…the spirit dance is coming up soon, and Cameron said we need to bring dates. I wanted to take Angelina and James and Alicia are going to help me but…I just…I don't know…" I muttered.

"Oh…yeah?" She said, and seemed to look a little troubled by that. "Well…If you ask her, I'm sure she'll say yes. You're good guy, and she'd be dumb not to take you. I remember…"

Hold the phone, she remembered? Remembered what? "What do you remember?" I asked.

"Nothing important." She said quickly.

"Tell me anyways." I pressed.

"…" She was silent for a long time. "Has anyone ever told you my relation to the honor society?" I responded by shaking my head, causing Katy to sigh. "Well…a long time ago…I was a member of the honor society. Cameron and I were the first kids in our class to have charas. We were so scared at first, but after Cameron's older brother, who also had a chara, taught us some stuff, alongside the rest of the old honor society…we became really good friends. As time went by the other kids got charas too, First was Clara, then James, then Alicia, we sort of formed our own version of the honor society. We worked well together, all of us, and we were really good friends until…until…" Katy gave a sigh.

"There was a guy named Adam. Adam was a guardian too, he was a really good friend of mine, and he was part of a group called the Seekers. Adam said they were looking for the wand of memories, and I wanted to help them. After a while, when we got really close to finding the wand, Cameron called me out on helping someone else, which I admitted to him that I was helping Adam build a better future." Katy continued. "He claimed that I was aiding in the destruction of dreams, but I thought that couldn't be true, and I told him what we were doing. Cameron said it probably wasn't a good idea, and that Adam would betray. He said I should stop working with Adam."

"And what did you do?" I asked Katy.

"What do you think?" She asked in an almost pained voice. "I went against his orders and helped Adam. If I could somehow stop dreams from dying, if I could help people all over with their dreams…then that's what mattered. When Adam and I found the wand though…he shot me."

"He what?" I asked, my eyes widened, and my heart jumped.

"Adam's dream wasn't to protect, it was to destroy, I thought his chara was a bodyguard, but instead it was a monster. He character transformed, and shot me, right in the head." Katy admitted.

"How are you still alive?" I asked cautiously.

"…I don't know. I don't remember anything until a week after that, when I woke up at home. I lost that entire week and had no idea what I was doing during that time. When I returned to the honor society, or whatever we were at that point, Cameron announced that he could no longer trust me. He exiled me from the honor society and…and I was left alone…with Bandit, My chara." Katy sighed. "I just…I just wanted to help people."

"Katy…we can fix this." I said. "Maybe if we talk to Cam-"

"You don't understand." Katy whimpered. "In that week I can't remember, I did something awful. I…I hurt someone, and I don't even know who it was. No one trusts me, no one wants me around, I'm all alone, and I…I just…"

"Katy…" I tried to say.

"That's why I need the sword of dreams. I don't know if I can use it, but if we can find a way to carry it back to Cameron…maybe I can figure out what I did." Katy sighed. "All because of a guy with a gun…"

I needed to calm Katy down, and I needed some questions answered. I wondered if I asked Katy some things if it would take her mind off of the…incident. "Katy, I have a question." I asked. "How do you know about all of the keeper weapons?"

"I studied the books when I younger…" Katy breathed.

"Tell me about them."

"Well…where to begin?" She sniffed. "The keeper was the first person to ever have chara, and he learned about dreams and what they could do. He also learned of things that could destroy dreams and he used five weapons to fight against those forces. There was the wand of memories, the sword of dreams, the shield of wishes, the gauntlet of spirit, and a promise. A promise that one day the keeper would return and fulfill his promise, but…we don't know what exactly that promise is. Whatever it is, it's bound to be great, because the weapons all gave the greatest ability of all. The ability to cleanse X-eggs, which can only be done with those five items, if you count the promise as one, or two other items that…are long gone."

Wait, a wand, a sword, a shield, a gauntlet, and a promise? Something wasn't adding up. "You can't learn how to cleanse eggs normally?" I asked.

"…No…" She said sadly. "No…you can't…"

Something didn't click about this, but I needed time to think about what it was. "Katy…I'm tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed."

"Yeah…I think I'll head home too. G'night…" She said and jumped off the side of the house and began flying somewhere, which reminded me how bad I was at flying.

I somehow managed to get back into bed without falling off the roof, which by the way was really hard to do. I needed to think about what I had just learned. Because something didn't make sense, Cameron could cleanse eggs, but he didn't look like he had any of the four weapons, and I somehow doubt he has a promise with him.

Something was wrong, and I needed more answers…looks like it's back to the drawing board for me…


	5. My Shadow

By the time we got to a month and a half of being a guardian, there were more unanswered questions that I had then I have ever had in my life. Why did Chara's exist, exactly? Why would people try to destroy other's dreams? What was the deal between Cameron and Katy? As time passed, my questions starting piling up and I might have gotten a little reckless. I may have started asking Clara for answers.

Let me back up a little though, before that. So it was after school, when the honor society was working on their own little projects. James and I sat in the corner while everyone else did their own thing. Cameron was working on some kind of paper work, Clara was writing stuff down, Angelina and Alicia worked on some publicity for the spirit dance, and James and I 'worked' on some event planning, things we could do during the dance. Of course, in all actuality we were just talking with one another. There was a lot to talk about, mainly; how I was going to impress Angelina. Until at one point, Cameron stood straight up in the middle of a conversation.

"Mr. President?" Clara asked.

"Clara, take Brandon, and your charas and go investigate the forest." Cameron said calmly.

"Is there a problem?" Angelina asked. "Is there is, maybe I could-"

"No." Cameron retorted. "I don't feel safe, and I don't want you out there. Clara and Brandon might be able to handle it."

"Who's out there?" I asked.

"…I don't know." The king piece admitted. "But you need to go check it out."

There wasn't really much else to the conversation. Clara stood up and motioned for me to come with her. I grabbed the wand and left with her, hoping that there was nothing out there.

We marched down to the gate, passed through a hole, and made it to a thick part of the woods. We traveled a little until we came to a bit of a clearing. "I don't understand." Clara admitted. "There isn't anything out here…"

"We don't know that." Isabelle said. "It's always possible that there is something…"

"I don't see anything." Gentus admitted.

"I don't feel anything, either." Teris said. "Nothing out here."

"I guess we should head back." Clara said taking a couple steps away.

"Wait." I called out. "Clara…I uh…have a couple of questions to ask…about charas."

"Can't that wait till we get back to the clubhouse?" Clara quipped.

"No…I uh…" I sputtered. "Can…you tell me how Charas are made?" I asked.

Clara sighed. "Chara's are made from several different things. They can be from a wish, a memory, a strong spirit, a dream, or a promise. When their strong enough, they can form an egg which can materialize and become a chara."

"Right…" I said. "And the keeper?"

"The Keeper was the first guardian and he created items to help us defend charas and eggs." Clara retorted.

"So, there was a sword, a shield, a wand, a gauntlet, and a promise, right?" I said and realized I spoke too much.

Clara stopped for a minute, calculating what I said. "You've been talking to Katy." She said flatly. "You've been talking to the enemy?"

"She isn't our enemy!" I responded. "She wants to help us!"

"By stealing the wand?" Clara asked. "You're a traitor!"

"I'm not a traitor!" I cried. "I'm just looking for answers!"

"About what?" Clara asked. "What could you possibly question that could cause you to talk to a Seeker?"

"Where's the cane?" I asked finally.

"The wha-"

"Cameron used a cane to cleanse the egg, but as far as we know, you need one of the guardian weapons in order to do that, but no one has ever mentioned a cane to me." I told her. "So where did the cane come from?"

Clara seemed taken aback. She took a while to respond. "So, you pieced it together to."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Angelina and James are too loyal towards Cameron to ever think badly of him. Alicia tries her hardest, but I don't think she has even thought of what to do if we had a traitor. For a while, I thought I was the first one to start thinking that…"

"You think Cameron might be a traitor?" I said.

"Or he's not telling us something." Clara suggested. "I normally go through the records and there is no record for a cane that can cleanse X-eggs, so how does Cameron have something that doesn't exist?"

"I…I don't know…" I told her. "I barely put it together myself."

"Ah, but isn't that the best part?" We both heard a voice say. We looked up to find the same guy who shot the kid a couple days ago standing on a tree. "If you don't know, than that means there is an adventure to discover the truth, isn't there?"

"Gun Guy…" I muttered to myself.

"It's Adam, thank you." He pulled up his gun. "But, you don't have time to worry about that, later." He fired a black laser straight through my chest, about where my heart was, I felt an intense pain surge through my body, before I heard a thud, and found myself dizzy and lying on the ground. The trees above my started to get darker and, before long, I found myself fading from the world, and past out.

I didn't recognize the next place I was. It was bright white, a lot like how it felt when I character unlocked, but I could see things a bit better now. There was furniture strewn about, regal looking couches, and red carpets on the floor. There wasn't really a ceiling, but an open top towards the starry sky. When I focused my vision I found myself looking at a man, whom I couldn't make out. His figure looked frail and weak, like he was old, and from the sharp ends of his clothing it looked like he might have been in armor.

"You have a very nice place here. " He whispered to me. "It's almost the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Where am I?" I asked. "Am I…?"

"Dead?" The man finished. "Far from it, my young friend, you've simply been knocked unconscious, but while you are here, I wanted to have a word with you."

"Who are you?" I asked.

The man seemed to almost chuckle. "Whoever you think I might be, we are in your heart." He stared straight at me and for a minute I thought I could make out eyes. "Tell me something, my young friend, what happens to a character when the guardian becomes an adult?"

"Huh…?" I asked. "I…I don't quite understand…"

"You see lots of adults every day of your life." The man explained. "How come none of them have characters?"

"I…I don't know." I admitted.

"There are two things, two that you should be aware of." The man told me. "When a guardian grows old enough, he or she may join with a guardian, if they have fulfilled their requirements towards the creation of the character. The other, however, is death. A character dies if that fulfillment is not met."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

The old man looked up. "Your wish 'Solitary or Society', it requires you to select one of your characters; Teris, the apex of a solitary life style, and Gentus the symbol of a societal life style." The old man heaved. "That will require you to choose between the two characters you have. Someday, you will have to make a choice between them."

"You…" I stopped for a minute. "You want me to choose between them?"

"It's the way that this world works." The man said. "You have to choose between the two, it is the way of a guardian."

I couldn't believe that, I couldn't accept that. How could I choose between Teris or Gentus? The two of them were…they were my characters, there was no way I could pick between them! How was it possible for me to send one of them to death?

"Why…why are you telling me this? I asked.

"I came to give you knowledge." The man told me. "The future will be very chaotic for you and your friends. You must look out for one another, you must watch the one who claims leadership, and you need to beware the ones who stand against your group."

"The seekers…" I stated.

"Some of them, yes." The man said. "But there will be more people who stand against the goal your friends share. You cannot judge people based on the affiliation they have with others, for some of them can be changed. An X-egg can always be cleansed, just like a person can always be reformed."

"I…I don't understand." I told him.

He seemed to laugh. "You will, one day. You need to wake up, you need to save your friend."

And then, the room started to drift away, and before long I was back in the forest.

I looked up to find Clara, dressed in very professional clothes, holding a large pen against the Adam's gun. "Brandon, I really need help!" She said after she noticed I was awake.

"Got it!" I called and pointed the wand to my chest. "My heart, Unlock!"

I drifted from the world again, and appeared in the same familiar room. I noticed just a tiny more detail, I could feel something warm under my feet, and I noticed that the windows shone with a pale light, but otherwise the room was the same as it had always been. I looked back into the pool and fell through, which led me back to the real world, where I was changed into a closer appearance to Teris. "Solitary Unlock!" I called out, holding the wand towards Adam. "You need to leave. Now."

"Sorry kid, that's not happening." He said, knocking Clara back and firing at me.

I barely managed to get the wand up high enough to deflect the bullet.

"This guy can't be cleansed, like X-eggs." Teris said to me in my head. "This isn't some battle we can win with words, we need to attack."

"How exactly do you want me to do that?" I asked aloud.

"Let me help." Teris replied, causing the wand to lock onto Adam.

"Solitare!" I called out, causing what looked like a stack of cards to come out and hit Adam. Oddly enough, the attack seemed to hurt him, making him flinch while Clara smacked the back of his head with her giant Pen. I fired more cards, and she kept hitting him, until he fired another shot at my left leg, which caused me to fall onto my knees.

"Enough of this." He kicked Clara onto her back and aimed his gun at me. "This is where we change fate." His pulled the trigger, but not before a metal blade hacked into the gun, causing it to change direction and fire next to me. Standing there, in full leather armor was Katy.

"Leave, now." Katy said.

"Oh come now Katy, help me defeat these fools and we can find the Sword of Dreams." Adam suggested.

Katy glared at Adam. "Either you or your head must be off. Take your choice."

"Do you think you can fight me?" Adam taunted.

"No, but all three of us can." Clara said, holding the pen to his head, and I quickly pulled my wand towards him.

Adam took a minute before he spoke again. "Don't think this is the end." He warned. "I'll be back." He fired at the ground, throwing dirt and dust in the air, and then, when everything was cleared, he was gone.

I took a sigh of relief before Clara pointed her pen at Katy. "Don't trust me yet?" Katy asked.

"You may have saved us this time." Clara replied. "But there is no proof that you do not create X-eggs, furthermore you have plenty of reason to save the wand, not us. Until I know for sure, I will keep you away. You are still my enemy, Katy, until there is proof, otherwise."

"Clara, she isn't against us." I told her.

"Brandon, she saved our lives, which is why I will let her leave, but the next time she comes around here, I will not hesitate to defeat her." Clara informed me. "Now leave."

Katy sighed. "Clara, there is so much I could show you, if you listened."

"Listening to you could be one of the worst decisions I ever make." Clara replied.

Katy turned around and left through the forest, leaving me alone with Clara, who glowed for a tiny bit, and went back to normal. I also fell into that too, feeling pretty fatigued, but not as bad as the first time.

"You can character change…" I noted.

"Yeah…" She said. "I've had Isabelle for a while."

There was an awkward silence in the air. "So, what happens now?" I asked.

Clara stayed silent.

"He's suspicious of Cameron." Isabelle stated. "We can't blame him for that. There are inconsistencies that he has become aware of."

"I suppose…" Clara said. "I just…I don't know."

"What do we do about Cameron?" I asked.

"I don't think there is anything we can do." Clara stated. "We don't have any proof that what he is doing is…working against us, but we don't have proof that he is helping us, either. We're sort of stuck in a limbo for now. We need to wait until we can do something about it, before we bring this up, especially with more than half the board against us."

"I guess that works." I said.

More silence for a while. "Let's head back to the school, Cameron is probably waiting for us." More silence. "Let's uh…let's not mention everything. Probably leave out the part where Katy came in, Cameron won't be happy about her hanging around here."

"Clara," I started. "What exactly happened between Katy and Cameron?"

"I don't know…" Clara admitted. "That was…such a long time ago, before I even joined the board. I don't really know how the two of them met or…what happened between them, the only thing I know is that it was really bad, and now; Katy is considered an enemy." She paused for a moment. "If I had to guess, I'd say it involved the wand or something like it. Maybe it was just that she was endangering the school, it's hard to say for certain."

I thought on that for a moment. It made sense that Clara wouldn't know, since the council started to grow after Katy left, but I had hoped that she might have asked or something.

"Do you think there are other people who might know?"

Clara gave me an odd look. "Yeah, Angelina's been here about as long as I can remember, but she is really loyal to Cameron, if you're not careful, then you could get…"

"Yeah… I know…" I told her. I had to find out what happened between Katy and Cameron. I don't know why, but for some reason, I felt as if there was a really good reason for finding out the truth. I don't know what that reason was, but I just felt like I needed to know.

That's about when the X-characters started coming around…


	6. Society Unlock!

Soon after our encounter with Adam, we came to one of the worst days we had ever had. I don't know why I remember it so vividly, we fought these kinds of things all the time later on, but seeing it for the first time really did something to me. Seeing it, in this kind of form, was terrifying.

I'm talking about X characters.

I think you might have gotten a general idea of what an X-egg is, the personification of negative feelings caused by emotions, but X characters, they're different. X characters are like X-eggs, but when those things hatch, it's a nightmare. It's sentient, its powers are controlled and its attacks, deliberate. The idea that this _thing_, could one day be an end result of Teris and Gentus made me sick to my stomach. It was something that I couldn't even fathom, until much later…

It was November now, and I started spending a lot more time with Student Counsel. I started looking into different ways to help the school. James and Clara both gave some really interesting ideas, but for the life of me, I can't remember what those were anymore. On this day in particular day, class actually was interesting. I was in a Language Arts class with a teacher named Mrs. Hall, who called me out. It was roughly one PM and the sun was just above the school. There was somewhere around 25 desks in the class room and almost all of them were filled. The walls were a boring white (what's with this school and boring colors?) often decorated with some kind of poster here or there. Mrs. Hall, a somewhat elderly woman with short blond hair, glasses, and an old, tired, face approached me at the start of class.

"Mr. Goins." She said. "I've been told to tell you to head for the main office. Your presence is requested." I opened my mouth to speak but it was like she already knew what I was going to say. "I don't know what it's about."

I thanked her, and left the room hurriedly, I made my way to the office in silence before Gentus spoke up. "What do you think this is about?" He asked in an almost scared fashion.

"We don't know." Teris answered. "As far as we know, it could be anything."

"I don't think I've done anything bad…" I told them. "But I've never been called down to the office before…"

There was silence again. As we walked through the halls towards the navy blue office, we came to find that there was a familiar looking girl standing in front of the doors. Floating next to her was a very familiar Chara too, she looked like an angel, even holding a harp in the crook of her left arm. "Angelina!" I called out.

"Hey." She greeted me. "Sorry to have you come down here…"

"Eh, it's fine." I said, with a sigh of relief that I wasn't in trouble. "What are we doing here anyway?"

"We're just going to move some boxes from the office to the clubhouse." She said simply. "Cameron's wanted to move them there for a long time."

"Know what's in them?" I asked.

"Just some papers, I think." Angelina told me. "I'm not really sure what's on them, though."

"Alright, then let's get going." I smiled, and heard a little giggle next to me, and turned to see Gentus giving me a very odd look that I didn't understand until a little bit later, leaving me feeling the heat on my cheeks.

"What?" Angelina asked innocently. "What's he making that face for?"

"Nothing." Teris said and punched Gentus' arm.

We worked throughout the rest of the period, talking to one another and carrying boxes from the office to the clubhouse. We talked the whole time, and I learned a lot about her. We talked about our classes, which led to talking about our classmates, which led to talking about the clubs, to the chess board members themselves, to our own charas. Angelina's character was named Sera, and her dream was to help people as best as she can. I'm not going to lie, it was heartwarming talking to her. She was a little naïve but she was so nice, so pleasant, that I felt really happy afterwards.

It felt like such a short time later when we dropped the boxes. "That's the last ones." I said.

"Yeah, thanks for the help." She told me.

"No problem, it was nice talking with you." I replied and looked back at her to see her blushing and looking at the floor.

"It was…nice talking to you too…" It was at that moment that I saw what everyone else saw. Her brown eyes looked down in an innocent way, her blond hair covered part of her left eye, giving her an almost shy look. I felt a warm feeling in my chest, and that's when I knew what I felt. I saw that Angelina was beautiful, both inside and out. She was the most amazing girl I had ever met. She was different from the others, from Alicia, from Clara, from Katy, she was different in a very special way. "Brandon…?"

I was drawn back to reality. "Y-yeah?" I asked. I felt different now, my legs shook a little, there was an unwelcome lightness in my chest, I couldn't look her in the eyes, for some reason I kept looking everywhere else.

She giggled a little. "What's wrong with you?"

Then we heard a loud slam of a door nearby, causing both of us to turn in that direction. She immediately took off for that direction. I was a little slower than her, but I followed soon after.

We came to a set of bathroom doors, where a group of a dozen of kids surrounded them. A group of girls banged on the door to the girl's restroom and talked in a menacing tone, but I was too preoccupied with trying to find what was going then to focus on that.

Angelina spoke with another girl, who looked quite familiar. She had long blue hair, pink eyes, and a pretty face. I recalled that she had social studies with me and I recalled that her name was Elizabeth.

After a bit, Angelina nodded and turned to me. "Some girls were making fun of the girl in the bathroom. She ran away and locked herself in there." She turned to the restroom doors. "We have to help her!"

I turned to the group of girls in front of the door and approached them. "What are you guys doing? Leave her alone." I said in the biggest voice I could muster.

The girls all looked at me, and laughed before turning back to the door and banging on it. "Come on, stop talking to yourself, freak!"

"That is enough." I heard and turned to see Clara standing next to me. "All of you leave now, before I have the principal expel you out of this school." There was a strong intensity in her face that was almost scary. I could sense a huge amount of tension and anger in the air that told me she if she could, she would destroy them where they stood.

"All of you go back to class, before there is any more trouble." I heard another familiar voice say. I turned to find that Cameron had found his way here and stood next to Angelina.

There was grumbling and most of the kids left, although Elizabeth, who gave a look of worry before she turned to leave, but Angelina rushed to her and they talked to one another, Cameron joined with them. "What's going on?" Gentus asked.

"I don't know." Clara said. "But those girls who were pulling her…" She tightened her hands into fists. Then breathed and turned to the door. "Hey, my name is Clara, I'm part of the Student Counsel. Those girls are gone, you can come out now."

"I'm not coming out!" She yelled. "They'll just make fun of me again; they always make fun of me!"

"I'm sure that isn't true!" Clara called back.

"Everyone hates me!" She screamed, and from under the door I could see dark lavender light for a moment.

"X-egg." I warned to Clara in a whisper.

Clara's eyes went wide. "Mr. President!" She called to Cameron, who came rushing over, alongside Elizabeth and Angelina. "We have a serious problem." She said, while eyeing Elizabeth.

Cameron raised a hand. "I understand, fully, but we can't do anything about it, until that girl comes out of there."

Elizabeth knocked this time. "Come on Logan, we need you out of there!"

"Leave me alone, no one likes me…" She called back.

"Logan, please, we need you to help us help you. We can't help you if you won't come out." Angelina called in there.

"This is the way it's always going to be…" She spoke. "I'm picked on because I'm not like the other girls, and they make fun of me for it. I've always been made fun of, and its how it always will be…maybe it'd be better if…"

"If what?" Cameron asked. "If what, Logan?"

"Made it'd be better if I just died!" She yelled and instantly I felt the cold hand of dread creep up on me. Something bad happened in there. I looked up to be met with the other board member's gaze.

"We need to do something." I said.

"Like what?" Elizabeth asked me.

"I have an idea." I fished the wand out of my book bag, Angelina knew what was going to happen soon and lead Elizabeth away from the door. "Teris, it's time."

"No." Teris told me.

"What do you mean no?" Clara asked.

"You want me to keep this girl from her own wishes?" Teris asked. "Sorry, I can't do that. I have limits."

"You can't be serious!" Gentus called out. "This girl is in danger, there is an X-egg in there!"

"She says she wants to die, if that's the case, than let her." Teris simply said. "Just another moron off the face of this planet."

"Teris you can't do this!" I argued.

"You can try all you want, you can't character change without a consenting Chara." Teris rolled his eyes. "Looks like you got nothing."

"I can't cleanse an egg without being in a transformation…" I muttered. "Cameron, do you-"

"No." Cameron told me. "I don't have it with me."

"Gentus!" Clara called out. "Just change with Gentus!"

"I…I don't have the power…" Gentus admitted. "I'm not as strong as Teris is…"

"Gentus, please, we need to save her!" I called out.

"Shut up!" Yelled Logan from inside, and the door came down, nearly taking Cameron, Clara and myself with it. From the door way, we saw a floating girl wearing a pink T-shirt, jeans, and black shoes. Her eyes were shut tight and she had no hair, bald. I wondered for a moment about that, before I noticed the dark figure next to her. It had an angry face, and it looked like it was covered in darkness. There was a giant red x on his forehead and it emitted an aura of…something. I felt a combination of pity, fear, and sadness while looking at the thing in front of me.

"What is that?" Clara questioned loudly.

"I…I don't know…" Cameron answered.

For a moment I couldn't focus. I felt powerless and weak. Teris wouldn't transform with me, and there was no way I could fight that thing. Even if I could transform I had no idea how I was going to even deal with it.

"Brandon!" Cameron called, snapping me back into focus. "You need to fight it!"

I nodded. "Gentus, we need to try."

"I…I don't think I can…" Gentus said. "I'm not strong enough."

"We can't just do nothing!" I told him.

"Leave me alone!" The X-chara screamed, sending a bolt of black lightning near me.

"O-okay…" Gentus said. "I-I'll try…"

I raised the wand to me chest. "My heart, unlock!" I called. There wasn't any light or magic room or anything. Nothing happened.

"Gentus, I need you to focus on it." I encouraged.

"I told you; I couldn't do it!" Gentus sighed.

"Again." I called. "My heart, unlock!" Once again, nothing.

"Gentus." Isabelle, who was hiding behind Clara, said. "You need to try harder!"

"I can't…" Gentus nearly sobbed.

"Gentus, if you can't do it, this girl with die!" Isabelle stated bluntly.

That got his attention. "N-no…" Gentus said. "N-no, I can't let her die!" He exclaimed. Something clicked in my head, I don't know what but I felt different. Gentus gave the girl one last look before nodded his approva.

I raised the wand to my chest again. "My heart, unlock!" There it was, a flash of light, followed by the familiar drifting feeling away from this world and into another.

I found myself, not in a bedroom this time, but somewhere different. I was standing under a light, and all around me was darkness. I couldn't see anything past it, as hard as I tried. It was thick, almost suffocating, but the light on me seemed welcoming and inviting. A feeling of happiness and accomplishment washed over me as I looked out. The floor made a creaking sound as I took a step and I noticed it was made out of a black wooden material. As I looked around, I found a white pool of light that shined and glowed faintly in the darkness. It was weak, but it was inspiring. I walked towards it, and fell in, like I did with the green light with Teris. It felt…interesting. It was different from what I normally felt, it was less comfortable than when I changed with Teris, but it was also warm, and gave me a sense of hope. I felt my clothes begin to disappear and be replaced as I flowed through the light. First it was my shoes, which changed to uncomfortable, black dress shoes, followed by black pants. My shirt became a white button up dress shirt, followed by a top hat that finished it off on my head. I noticed the pawn on my necklace glowed and changed into a top hat identical to the one on my head.

The light faded and I found myself transformed back in the real world. "Society Unlock!" I called out.

"You're all liars!" The X-chara yelled, and sent another bolt of lightning at me, which I barely managed to dodge.

"I have no idea what to do…" Gentus moaned in my head.

I held the wand up. "Forum!" I called, and white bubbles exited the wand and flew into the X-chara, causing to groan in pain.

"I have no idea what you're doing Brandon, but keep doing that!" Cameron called.

"Stop making fun of me!" It sent another black bolt of lightning right for my leg, which connected, leaving me with a wash of pain over the skin where it hit.

"Friendship!" I aimed the wand towards the X-chara, hitting it with a blast of white and purple.

"We can't keep hitting it like this." Gentus said in a concerned voice. "We're not doing anything to it, but I feel really bad about hitting it."

"You're all the same, all of you only want to hurt me!" The X-chara groaned in sadness and hit me square in the chest with more lightning.

"Brandon…" Gentus said. "Let me take over."

"What?" I asked.

"Please." Gentus asked. "I have an idea.

"…" I silent at first. "Okay…" I said, and took a step back, letting myself lose feeling my arms and legs and hands.

My body took a step forward. "Listen, I'm sorry for everything we've done." Gentus said in my voice.

"You've ruined my life!" The X-chara called, missing another lightning bolt.

"You've been through so much, been made fun of by everyone…" Gentus sighed. "I'm sorry all of this happened." He continued to walk.

"I don't want your pity!" The X-chara screamed and shot me with more lightning.

"There are better ways to go about it than this, though." Gentus said as he got closer to the girl.

"All you're gonna do is make fun of me more…" The X-chara told him.

"No…I'm not." Gentus said and embraced the floating girl. There was a moment of silence all around before Gentus broke it. "You've been picked on your whole life, for something you can't even control. Something that's already so scary…something so sad, and the other kids don't make it any better for you. All you've wanted is for people to accept you and you've been rejected your whole life. I'm so sorry…" He started crying. "I can't imagine the pain you've gone through, but I can feel it in all the anger and sorrow you have. It's so much, I understand now why you would do this." Once again there was silence.

"Open your heart." Gentus whispered, prompting the tip of the wand to glow.

"I should just die!" The X chara yelled one final time and shot a barrage of lightning at Gentus, who turned, protecting the girl, and aiming the wand at the X-chara. "Acceptance!" He called and shot a golden beam out of the wand, going directly for the X-chara, which hit and caused it to glow a golden aura until cleansed. Once finished, it revealed a tiny chara girl in a yellow dress. Her eyes were warm and caring, and her face was happy and inviting.

I felt Gentus take a step back, and I gained control over my body again. I walked towards her, and she put a finger to her lips. "Soon." She said and looked towards the girl. "I haven't been born yet, I'm afraid, this is where you and I must part ways." She smiled. "But we will see each other again someday. Maybe I won't remember you, maybe things will be different, but someday soon, we will meet again…"

With that she went back into a blank egg and disappeared back into Logan.

I walked towards her and noticed she was waking up, so I offered her my hand. "Our dreams are the most precious gift we have been given, save life. " I told her, although I think Gentus might have been influencing my thoughts. "We need to protect both, because we need both of them in order to continue." The girl looked up with big green eyes and took my hand. "We should keep both of those things sacred."

"Wha-…what happened?" She asked in a small voice.

"Something amazing." Isabelle said, and I looked over and smiled at her.

Logan looked between Isabelle and I for a while, her eyes alit with excitement. "Wait!" She called out. "You can see them too?"

My eyes widened, and I felt myself get very heavy. There was a flash in my eyes and I felt Gentus and myself separating, possibly from the shock. "What?" I asked.

"A girl with no charas to speak of, at the same age as us, can see our charas?" Clara asked.

"How…?" Cameron asked.

So, we had a new girl in our ranks now. A girl who could see our charas, but was not a guardian herself, an oddity amongst the world, as it would seem, but that wouldn't be the weirdest thing to come, there were far more strange and dangerous things that would be coming our way in the near future.


	7. Keep the Keeper

p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"You wouldn't imagine the confusion at the meeting that day. There was questioning, and answering, and yelling, and swearing, and all kinds of stuff. We just…didn't know what to do with this girl, Logan. No one had ever heard of an older person who could see guardian characters./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Let me give you the abridged version of the meeting./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"After school, which wasn't all that long after finding Logan, I walked into the club room to find it filled with everyone. Cameron sat at his desk, his hands folded on top of the wood, and Kennedy sat on the edge of the desk, with his legs crossed. Angelina sat at her desk, with Angel sitting on top of her head. Clara and Alicia sat on one of the couches, with Isabelle standing on the arm writing notes, and Vorpa sitting on Alicia's lap while James sat on the other with Excaliber on his shoulder. Logan stood in front of the coffee table, looking directly at Cameron and Angelina. I quickly sat next to James and looked to Cameron./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Good, everyone's here." Cameron said in an almost irritated voice. "Now, today was originally going to be about events coming up, but an unexpected event has turned up, that needs our attention. Everyone meet Logan Keeper."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"The girl looked down at the floor next to her./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Why's she here?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Logan is a mystery." Cameron sighed. "A girl with no guardian characters to speak of, but she can see them…"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""You can see me?" Vorpa asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Y-yeah…" Logan admitted. "I'm a little…confused."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Well that is to be expected." Cameron said. "You shouldn't exist."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Uh, Cameron." Angelina said. "Considering today's events, I don't think opening with that is a good idea."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""What do you think we should do?" Cameron asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Tell her what we are, and what we do." Angelina said confidently, and that's what we did. We told her everything we knew. About characters, and guardians, about the Keeper, the X-eggs, the wand, and what the student council does. She was a good listener, never really looking away or focusing on anything else./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"It took about an hour before we had her convinced not to tell anyone. She remembered that she forgot something in her locker once we finished, and left./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""I have a theory." Clara said after she left. "Two actually."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""I figured you might." Cameron commented. "Go ahead."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Clara stood up. "Something that has always been slightly dangerous to us is little kids. Children, who have not given birth to their heart's egg, can see guardian characters. This has been justified as, they don't focus on the future, and they focus on the here and now."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""So, what's that gotta do with Logan?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Logan Keeper suffers from Cancer." Clara told him bluntly. "It's probably why she's been made fun of here, and led to the bullying. Her future, involves death. I think that's why she focuses on the present, and might be why she can see characters, because her future, her true self, leads to death."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""But when I cleansed that…thing, it became a guardian character." I threw in. "She has to have a heart's egg then, right?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Which makes it even more confusing." Clara sighed. "Which is why I have explanation two, she's the promise that Keeper wanted to give us."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Clara," Cameron started. "How can you be so sure?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Her last name is literally Keeper." Clara presented. "That combined with the fact that she has a hearts egg, can see charas and had a corrupted egg turn into that…thing, leaves room to justify that she might be the fifth item."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Interesting." Cameron simply said. "I would like to see a little more evidence before we continue with either of those theories, though."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Which brings us to the next topic." Angelina sighed. "What do we do with her? She isn't a guardian, and I don't know if we can just add another chess piece to the board, especially halfway through the year, but we can't let her go too far from us. If the seekers found out about her…"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Yes, that would be a problem." Cameron said thoughtfully. "To be honest I have no idea what we should do." There was silence for a while. "Her safety should come first, let's reschedule her, and put her in the same classes as Alicia, James, and Brandon for now."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Right, I'll fill out the forms." Clara nodded./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Excellent." Cameron sighed. "Now onto other matters, I think we need to talk about the thing we fought today."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""That…wasn't normal, was it?" I asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Nothing we stand against is normal, including this thing." Cameron admitted./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""What was it anyway?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Cameron stood up. "When Kennedy was first born," He started. "We were trained by a set of board members in high school. I don't recall they're names, or even their dreams, but they were skilled in egg protection. They learned a theory from another group of guardians in a very faraway place. The theory stated that an X egg could hatch while being punished and create something even stronger than the egg; an X-character." He took a deep breath. "I think that is what we fought earlier. If the theory is true, then the Seekers are getting stronger."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""How did they know what was going on?" Alicia asked. "How did they learn that Logan was getting bullied?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""My honest opinion?" Cameron asked. "I've been playing with the notion that there is something working for the seekers in this school, which has been causing the recent influx of X-eggs. Now that this incident has happened, I think it's safe to say that this theory may be true."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Wouldn't we be able to see their character?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""If the character hung around them, then this would be the case." Kennedy piped up. "I don't think their character has been around them while they are here. Perhaps they abandoned their character, or perhaps they are hiding them from us, because they already know. Whichever is the case, it's safe to say that they are a few steps ahead of us."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""So what do we do?" Gentus asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""We pretend nothing happened." Cameron said. "It was just another normal day."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""You can't be serious, your majesty!" Excalibur called out. "There is an evil-doer in this school and you want to pretend that everything is perfectly fine?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Excalibur, we need to trust in his judgment." Angel told the little knight in a very soothing voice./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""We need to have a man hunt, not just sit around, waiting for them to do more damage!" Excalibur argued. "No wonder Katy and Bandit left y-"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""You will not speak their names in this office!" Cameron yelled, a tie materializing on his dress shirt. "You will do as I command, or you will share the same fate as her, do you understand me?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Prez, chill out." James said. "He's just being in his nature."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Mr. President," Clara spoke. "If there really are seekers in this school then they are watching and laughing as we drive ourselves apart."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Cameron, please calm down." Angelina soothed./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Cameron took a deep breath, and grabbed his bag. "This meeting is over." Then with that, he left the room./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"There was an awkward silence in the air before anyone could speak. Angelina stood up and left the room as well, leaving Alicia, James, Clara, and myself./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Well," Clara clicked her tongue. "I want to talk to Logan some more, so if you guys want to head home, you can, but I'll be here."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""I think I'll stick around a little longer." Alicia quickly said. "I wanna know more about her too!"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Yeah…I guess I should hang out too." James sighed./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Oh, Brandon, let's stay!" Gentus exclaimed. "We should get to know the young lady."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""We might be able to find answers. I think we should stay as well." Teris agreed./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"The door opened before I could give an answer and Logan entered the room. "Where are the others?" She asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""They…had to leave." Clara told her. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Um…okay…" Logan said nervously./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""So…how long have you been able to see characters?" Clara asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""A long time…" Logan admitted./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""You never thought to tell anyone you were seeing things?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Well, I didn't really know how to phrase it without sounding insane." Logan sighed. "I didn't think seeing little people and eggs in people was a normal thing for people to do."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Wait, what do you mean eggs?" Clara asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Well...with focus, I can see eggs in people's chests." Logan seemed a little scared./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""You can see a person's heart egg..." I muttered./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Yes, I think that how you put it..." Logan told me./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""So, then we can have you help us find other guardians." Clara said with an intelligent look in her eyes./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""I...don't think that works..." Logan butted in. "I mean...I can see an egg in Brandon's chest..."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Clara and James both looked at me, while Alicia didn't really seem to be paying that much attention./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""There's another egg?" James asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Makes sense, in away." Clara noted. "I suppose, when you think about it, Brandon uses the wand a lot, he keeps a part of the keeper in him, it's probably the remains of the Keeper's will."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Speaking of the Keeper, mind telling about this whole, keeper business?" I asked. "I still feel like there is a lot I'm missing, and no one is giving me any answers."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Sorry, not happening." Clara told me. "Cameron's got it on lock down. The only people allowed to handle anything involving the old artifacts are me and him."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Guys, we're supposed to be focusing on Logan." James told us./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"So, we talked with Logan for a bit, doing all sorts of things with her, we didn't learn all that much. We learned that she grew up here, and that she hasn't really been anywhere outside of the country. She just got back to school not that long ago. It wasn't long until I went home and spent the night talking with Teris and Gentus, having a sort of reflection on everything going on. Something that I think was well needed./p 


End file.
